Today in History

1841 – The Sophia Pate is wrecked on a sandbar at the entrance to Kaipara Harbour; 21 lives are lost.

1888 – Jack the Ripper’s first victim, prostitute Mary Ann Nichols, is found murdered in London.

1894 – New Zealand introduces compulsory arbitration for disputes between employers and unions.

1897 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his movie camera, the Kinetograph. 1939 – Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs an order to attack Poland, and German forces move to the frontier.

1968 – West Indian Garfield Sobers becomes the first cricketer to score six sixes off one over in first-class cricket, in Swansea, Wales.

1974 – New Zealand prime minister Norman Kirk, left, dies suddenly, aged 51.

2005 – Nearly 1000 people, mostly women and children, either drown or are crushed to death in Baghdad when rumours of a suicide bomber

spread panic among Shi’ite pilgrims crossing a bridge over the Tigris River.

2006 – Police in Norway recover the Edvard Munch masterpieces

The Scream and Madonna, two years after masked gunmen grabbed the national art treasures in front of stunned visitors at an Oslo museum.

2013 – An Indian teenager is the first to be sentenced – to three years in a reform home – after a young woman was fatally raped on a moving New Delhi bus. Birthdays Caligula (Gaius Caesar), emperor of Rome (12-41); Maria Montessori, Italian doctor and educator (1870-1952); Roderick Carr, New Zealand RAF commander and Indian air force chief (1891-1971); Van Morrison, Northern Irish singersongwriter (1945-); Richard Gere, US actor (1949-); Marcia Clark, US prosecutor (1953-); Serge Blanco, French rugby player (1958-); Kieran Crowley, NZ rugby player (1961-); Willie Watson, NZ cricketer (1965-); Queen Rania of Jordan (1970-).